Rev Prof Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mantey
God will deal with politicians who tread the ethnic tangent to win political points and destroy the country, the Chairperson of the Christian Council of Ghana has said.
Rev Prof Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mantey, the chairperson of the council, was speaking on a radio station programme, adding, however, that the use of tribalism to win political points is not a new tactic used by politicians.
“Tribalism in politics is not a new thing. Since we have a lot of tribes in Ghana, any time there will be any political process, people will trigger tribalism. However, the leaders in politics and anyone who has studied political science know that at a point, when you feel you are losing out in politics, tribalism can help. So they know how to use that tactic,” he said.
He advised that Ghanaians stood up against the tricks used by politicians. “The youth in this country must take note and understand that this is a trick that all politicians use. We must distance ourselves from this trick. Sometimes these politicians speak lies but they trigger some tribalism to win some political points. A lot of them do that during elections. Since Kwame Nkrumah’s time, I have observed this phenomenon, and a lot of the time someone triggers tribalism and it is something that happens every four years,” he said.
Even as he prayed for politicians treading on that tangent to repent from their ways, he was emphatic that those who did not do so and continued on those lines would face the wrath of God.
“These are all political tricks and for the politicians engaging in that I pray that they will repent or else God will deal with them. We have only one Ghana. Anyone who uses tribalism to destroy our country will be dealt with by God,” he added.
The tribal card has been activated during the voters’ registration exercise which ended yesterday. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has taken issues with the screening and arrests of suspected foreigners who breach our borders to come and partake in the exercise. Some suspects have already been arrested, arraigned and jailed.
The opposition would rather it appeared there was no screening at registration centres so that Togolese, Ivorians, Burkinabes and Nigerians were registered without questions as to their nationalities. According to the NDC, there is a “deliberate agenda of tribal discrimination to frustrate and disenfranchise Ghanaians of certain tribes from acquiring voters’ ID cards that will qualify them to exercise their democratic right to choose a President and Members of Parliament on December 7, 2020.”
The Zongo Minister, Dr. Mustapha Hamid, in rebutting the NDC’s accusation, asked whether the country was undertaking a Ghanaian election or ECOWAS one.
The NPP has described the NDC campaign as outright fabrications and antiquated fear-mongering tactics.
On Tuesday the National Chairman of the NPP, Freddie Blay, expressed concern about the NDC’s resort to ethnocentric politics, a dangerous pastime of the opposition party which should be stopped for the sake of national security.
By A.R. Gomda